Andhra Pradesh may soon have crop-saving irrigation as intervention at critical stage of growth. The irrigation equipment, mounted on a tractor with a hose pipe, will carry water and sprinkle it on the identified crop to save it.
Farmers spend thousands of rupees in providing water to a withering crop and it particularly happens with irrigated dry crops, says Simma Netaji, Country Head of SynTech Research.
But the irrigation equipment would help water the crop at a tentatively minimum cost of Rs.1,000 per acre.
The equipment would have a water tanker with 5,000 litre-capacity on a tractor and once the field was identified it would there with a hose pipe and a mini vehicle that would take up the wetting at the request of the farmer, he said.
The equipment developed by Lindsay Corporation of the USA was demonstrated at the Regional Agricultural Research Station at Anakapalle on the Republic Day, says Dr. Netaji.
It would cost roughly Rs.20 lakh and would be of great use in the country where flood irrigation was the norm, Mr. Netaji said.
Mr. Netaji said the Government of Andhra Pradesh was urged to give access to its fields in view of the rain-fed conditions, particularly in North Andhra.
The equipment is already in use in Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
